Many products have been developed to serve as fat replacements when added to already existing foods, or as mimics or analogues of already existing foods. The purpose of such products is to produce fat and calorie-reduced food products. Rarely however do such products duplicate or imitate the appearance, taste, texture, mouthfeel and performance characteristics of existing fat containing foods.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for making a fat replacement ingredient the results of which are readily reproduced, which process can accommodate a wide range of compositions in order to suit each particular food application as desired.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fat replacement ingredient which is easy to manufacture, versatile and makes possible the preparation of a dry solid food product which may be relatively instantly reconstituted with water to form a fat and calorie replacement system which can then serve as an analogue to already existing foods or may be added to already existing foods, without significantly altering the aforementioned performance characteristics of such foods.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide food analogues which are easy to manufacture, exhibit superior quality and performance characteristics, are available in a number of conveniently used forms, and which according to alteration of the processing method and the ratios of ingredients or elements employed can be engineered to meet the performance requirements of any foods to which they are intended to be added or which they are intended to replace.